Before we commence Leaders’ Questions, I ask colleagues to join me in extending a warm welcome to H.E. Ms Kara Owen, the British ambassador to Ireland, who has joined us in the Distinguished Visitors Gallery. Ambassador Owen, who has recently commenced her role, is accompanied in the Chamber today by officials from the British embassy in Dublin. You are very welcome to Leinster House. We wish the ambassador every success for the future in her term. Happy Christmas to you all.

Deputy Timmins has asked me to welcome the sixth year history class from Blessington Community College. I understand that 23 students are attending today, with their teacher, Kevin Murphy, who is Deputy Timmins's nephew, the deputy principals, Kevin Kelly and Ian Swan, and the SNAs. They are attending the Houses of the Oireachtas history workshop under Dr. Conor Reale, the parliamentary education officer. You are all very welcome today. I hope you enjoy your time in Leinster House and that your continued study of the history of this House will give you great interest in politics for the future.

On Leaders' Questions, I call Deputy Doherty.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an ambasadóir chuig Tithe an Oireachtais. Cuirim fáilte roimh na páistí chuig Tithe an Oireachtais fosta.

As we approach the last Leaders' Questions, I want to wish you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, and all the staff of the House a happy Christmas. Nollaig shona daoibh agus athbhliain faoi mhaise. Hopefully, everyone will have a peaceful new year, and we will see each other back here in the new year again.

Nuair a tháinig an Tánaiste chun ceannaireachta ar Fhine Gael, dúirt sé go ndéanfadh sé a sheacht míle dícheall chun na páistí a fháil amach as an seomra bosca agus isteach i dtithe dá gcuid féin. Dúirt sé le daoine go soiléir go gcaithfear teacht ar réiteach ar thithíocht faoi dheireadh thiar thall, ach a mhalairt atá i gceist agus atá fíor. Mar gheall ar a bhuiséad, d'fhág sé teaghlaigh níos boichte. An teip is mó a fheicimid ná i gcúrsaí tithíochta. Tá méadú de €31,000 tagtha ar phraghsanna tithe le bliain anuas.

This is the final Leaders' Questions of 2025. It brings us to a moment of reckoning. When the Tánaiste became the leader of Fine Gael, he spoke directly to parents and families across the State. He said he would move mountains to get children out of the box room and into a home of their own. He told people plainly that we have to fix housing once and for all. That is what he promised. He raised real expectations among families who are struggling and desperate for change. Yet, as this year closes, the evidence tells us a very different story.

Yesterday, the ESRI confirmed that decisions taken in the budget will result in a significant fall in disposable income for all households. Workers were hit with frozen tax credits and bands while the temporary cost-of-living supports were withdrawn. In other words, after the budget, families are poorer, not better off. Those are the facts. That matters because the cost-of-living crisis did not end on budget night. Families are still struggling with food prices, energy bills, childcare, transport and rents. People are working just as hard - indeed, often harder - yet falling further behind. The budget has locked in hardship. All of this is happening while prices continue to spiral. Prices have surged, wages have not caught up and supports were pulled away by the Tánaiste and his Government. Families are now being told that they have to absorb the difference.

Nowhere is this failure more brutal than in the area of housing. The CSO tells us that house prices have risen by 7.3% in the past year alone. What does that mean to the average person out there? It means that the average price of a home has increased by around €31,000 in the past 12 months. Get that. To keep pace with that single-year increase, a worker would need an equivalent pay increase of over €1,000 per week. No worker, even in their wildest dreams, would expect that. While disposable incomes are falling as a result of the budget decisions, the price of buying a home is racing away at a pace that makes a mockery of the talk of affordability and opportunity.

This is not abstract economics. This is young adults sleeping in their family box rooms. It is parents watching their children's future shrink. It is couples seeing the goalposts moved further away every single month. It is the quiet despair of people realising that no matter how hard they work, home ownership is being priced beyond their reach in real time. The Tánaiste promised to fix housing once and for all.

I ask him this question directly as the Dáil concludes Leaders’ Questions for 2025. Does the Tánaiste accept that his budget left people poorer, that the cost-of-living crisis is still crushing households, and that house prices rising by €31,000 in a single year proves that the promise he made to parents and young people, to get them out of their box rooms and into a home of their own, has been an abject failure?

I begin by welcoming the British ambassador, H.E. Ms Kara Owens, to Leinster House. I wish her and all at the British embassy a very happy Christmas. I look forward to working with them, as our nearest and closest neighbours, in the time ahead. I join with my colleague, Deputy Timmins, in welcoming the sixth year history class students from Blessington Community College, County Wicklow, who are in the Visitors Gallery today. We look forward to progress on their much-awaited major school capital project in the time ahead.

In the spirit of Christmas, I join with Deputy Doherty in wishing you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, and every Member of the House, their families and everybody who works in the House a very happy Christmas. I particularly thank all of the people who are behind the scenes but who work so hard, the staff who keep the place running, day in, day out - the ushers, the clerks, the secretaries, the chefs, the gardaí, the cleaners and so many people who think their work goes unseen. I want them to know that we see it, and we appreciate it as well.

Christmas is a time of great excitement for children and a time of great celebration and joy for many. It is also a time when those experiencing grief and trauma can find it particularly lonely and painful. This Christmas, I think of all of those who find the Christmas period difficult. I wish everybody a happy break. Nollaig shona daoibh go léir. I thank Deputy Doherty. I wish him a good break too, and I look forward to normal back-and-forth commencing in January.

In relation to the ESRI report today, first, I welcome the report. We should take its advice very seriously. Of course, it does not just say what Deputy Doherty says it says, because it says quite a few things. It is very much ad idem with the Government on the need for a massive capital injection and acceleration of housing supply. It talks about the importance of delivering and implementing our infrastructure reforms as key enablers to deliver the housing. It also talks about the Irish economy continuing to perform robustly, and the fact that there will be more jobs in Ireland in 2026 than there were in 2025.

It absolutely does highlight the need to do more in relation to housing. I should say, in case Deputy Doherty did not hear it, that the author of the report was on “Morning Ireland” this morning. In relation to the disposable incomes question, he made the very clear point, which I would echo, that when we look at the fact that wages are growing in Ireland, and, thankfully, on average, wages are finally growing ahead of prices, that will have a positive impact on people's spending power and ability in 2026. That is not just my view. It is the view of my Department. It is the view of the ESRI. Yes, we have had to disentangle one-off measures. Yes, we have had to get back to a normal budget period. Yes, we cannot have a situation where we are running two budgets every year. One budget each year and to make progress over five budgets is what we have to do.

Wages are now rising faster than prices for the first time in quite a while. That will help consumers. It will help families. It is one of the reasons that, in the ESRI report today, it is expecting consumer spending to grow further in 2026, even though it has already grown in 2025.

Housing remains the biggest challenge this country faces, of that there is no doubt. We are working to fix housing once and for all.

We actually have to do it rather than just make barbs. That is perhaps the difference between us and you. It is why we have already taken a number of steps, extended the lifetime of planning permissions and brought in measures to make developments viable again which Sinn Féin opposes at each and every opportunity. It is why even today the Minister of State, Deputy Cummins, has signed an order to continue planning exemptions for the conversion of vacant commercial properties into homes, extending it to 2028 before making it ultimately a permanent exemption. We have seen some encouraging figures. Yes, there are too many people in box bedrooms, of that there is no doubt, but completions are up. The latest CSO figures released only on 23 October showed 9,235 new dwellings completed in July, August and September, a rise of 4%. We saw 24,325 new dwellings completed in the first three quarters of the year, up 13% on the same period last year. More apartments have been completed this year than last year. Figures from the CSO last week show a very significant increase in planning permissions. There is a lot of work to do but there are more first-time buyers - talking about people living in box bedrooms - drawing down mortgages now than at any time in recent years, up 22% year on year.